By JULIE ASH
Netball North and Auckland Waitakere breezed past their opponents in the opening round of the national provincial tournament at Mystery Creek yesterday, but it took some serious clanging of the cowbells to spur Waikato on in their match against Canterbury.
For the Auckland teams the first day of
the championships might as well have been a training run, as Auckland Waitakere demolished Wellington 60-41 and Netball North cleaned up Otago 65-43.
But it was a different story for home-town favourites Waikato, who through sheer grit and determination edged out defending champions Canterbury 56-53.
Down 20-11 in the first quarter, 31-27 at halftime and 43-42 at the three-quarter break, Waikato, who were without experienced midcourters captain Amigene Metcalfe and Jenny-May Coffin who had niggling injuries, fought back to win 56-53.
"We haven't been pushed like that in the last couple of weeks so it was good to see them recover from a poor start and fight back and win," Metcalfe said.
Also slow off the mark were Auckland Waitakere, who led Wellington by just one goal in the first quarter before a dominant second-quarter performance set them up for victory.
Silver Fern captain Anna Rowberry, playing at wing attack, had the crowd oohing and aahing with her bullet-speed passes. When they worked they left the Wellington defence in disarray.
Victoria Edward had a strong third quarter when moved from centre to wing defence, while Moana Clark and Rachel Rassmussen provided Auckland Waitakere with a pretty formidable defensive combination.
Extending their 30-15 halftime lead to 48-26 at the three-quarter break, Auckland Waitakere coach Judy Weston made four changes in the last quarter.
"It was nice to get everyone on court and blow out a few cobwebs," she said.
"There was some nice straight-line play. It was a bit uncontrolled at times and I felt we had a bit of pressure on our shooters that we didn't need too.
"But I thought our defensive unit, when they worked together, went really well.
"We restricted them to just four goals in the second quarter, which was a really good effort."
Auckland Waitakere's defence will be crucial today when they line up against Waikato.
"We have to look at what we did well and what we didn't do well in our game against Wellington," Weston said. "I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves."
With Lois Muir in one corner and Yvonne Willering in the other, Otago's clash against Netball North could almost be described as a battle between two of netball's greatest coaching brains.
The young Otago side were always expected to struggle against the powerful North Harbour unit, but managed to hold their own in early stages and trailed Netball North by just 14-11 at the first break.
But that was as close as they came, as Netball North powered away to lead 29-19 at halftime and at 45-28 at the three-quarter mark before winning the match and cementing their place alongside Waikato as favourites to take the title.
In yesterday's bottom six section, Eastern beat Counties and Manukau 70-40, Southland downed Western 45-38 and Bay of Plenty beat Tasman 82-35.
In today's matches, Auckland Waitakere face Waikato, Netball North play Wellington and Otago meet Canterbury.
In the bottom six, Southland take on BoP, Eastern play Tasman and Counties-Manukau face Western.
By JULIE ASH
Netball North and Auckland Waitakere breezed past their opponents in the opening round of the national provincial tournament at Mystery Creek yesterday, but it took some serious clanging of the cowbells to spur Waikato on in their match against Canterbury.
For the Auckland teams the first day of
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